For four months, the Trump administration has waged a battle over diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In the crosshairs: universities and schools. Schools such as Case Western University and the University of Michigan have made policy changes. Harvard resisted changes and is now suing the federal government over budget cuts and governmental demands.
Against the background of these changes, the U-High community came together for the annual Social Justice Week, April 21 to 25, to celebrate DEI at Lab. The week included assemblies and workshops around Holocaust remembrance and social justice, as well as lunch events hosted by various groups.
Jimmy Yu, co-president of the Social Justice Committee, said this year’s Social Justice Week shouldn’t be treated differently from those of others.
“We aren’t thinking about social justice just because politics and the U.S. is turbulent right now,” Jimmy said. “Social justice is something that is constant. It’s year-round, and it’s not just at this point in time that we have to start thinking about social justice.”
Junior Xia Nesbitt, who attended a workshop on LGBTQ+ history and a workshop about misinformation, said social justice and diversity are intrinsically linked, especially at U-High.
“I think that being a diverse school means also having diverse political views,” Xia said, “and Social Justice Week is all about talking about diversity and what makes us unique.”
The Holocaust Remembrance Assembly, organized by the Jewish Students’ Association on April 23 included guest speaker Renee Birnberg Silberman, who has four Holocaust survivors in her family, both her parents and her parents-in-law. Jewish students recited poetry and short stories during the assembly.
Nearly 40 workshops followed each of the assemblies. Sophomore Isabella Fuller led two workshops on behalf of the Cache Money robotics team. Isabella wished that the current DEI topics were fully addressed.
“We should at least try to address what’s going on in the world as far as diversity,” Isabella said, “and not ignore the issues, because it’s a very important topic.”
Sophomore Iris Strahelivitz was one of several students who presented a workshop called “Neo-Nazis in the Public Eye.” Iris said she chose this topic because she wanted to stress that it pertained to the past as well as modern times.
“We really wanted to educate people about the Holocaust’s current effects now, versus just the Holocaust’s effects 80 years ago,” Iris said, “because the Holocaust and those ideas are still present in the modern day.”
Black Students’ Association co-president Joshua Carter ran a trivia workshop about the interactions between people with Black and Jewish identities. Joshua, a senior, said affinity groups should support each other with events like these, referring to Unity Council, a coalition of cultural clubs and affinity groups hosted by the Social Justice Committee every month.
“Unity Council has really stressed the importance of collaborating with different affinity groups and supporting each other,” Joshua said. “Because at the end of the day, we all, kind of, are just fighting for social justice and want each other to be represented.”
While Jimmy, the Social Justice Committee co-chair, doesn’t believe that social justice should be treated any differently this year, he did notice that the events emphasized the importance of social justice in society today. He said a new assembly format, which started with a video instead of a traditional panel or presentation, brought in more diversity of opinions. The video featured faculty from multiple departments and club leaders explaining how they integrated DEI within their curricula and daily lives.
“I think that’s important right now with the politics in the U.S. right now,” Jimmy said. “We got to hear a lot more voices.”
Lunch events featured niche topics and discussions. On April 25, history teachers Charles Disantis and Samuel Fajerstein presented to students about the impacts of President Trump’s tariffs, dubbed by some as a “trade war.”
